Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Sinn Fein claim that the recent arrest of Gerry Adams by the PSNI had a
political character designed to damage Sinn Fein. It claims that there
is a dark element within the PSNI. It also slanders Dolores Price and
Ivor Bell.

The above claims are a further reinforcement of the reactionary nature
of this political party. Its claims suggest that the PSNI as a necessary
part of the British imperialist state is non-political. As an organic
part of the capitalist state the PSNI is of necessity political. When
the latter intervenes in demonstrations organised by nationalists or
loyalists it is acting politically. Ironically for Gerry Adams and the
stalinist like Sinn Fein the six county police are only political when
they arrest Gerry. It is not being political when they arrest a
"dissident" Republican but when they arrest Gerry it is. The point is
that when Sinn Fein opportunistically accepted the establishment of the
PSNI it was, ipso facto, accepting the entire force. Sinn Fein cynically
want to see the PSNI like the parson's egg.

The essential point is that Sinn Fein/IRA betrayed its core principles
many years ago when it officially accepted the existence of political
partition and its two reactionary states on both sides of the border.
This means it accepts the validity of the imperialist domination of the
island of Ireland.

Furthermore it is highly unlikely that the arrest of Gerry was
undertaken without the consent of the British government. Sinn Fein
knows this but seeks to reduce the arrest to the level of an aberration
caused by a cabal within the police service. This is because Sinn Fein
supports both British and Irish capitalism. And this is why its
opportunist economic program in the South is based on the absurd
assumption that economic and social problems are solvable within
capitalism. This assumption and the programme built on it means that
Sinn Fein is not an anti-capitalist formation. Neither is its success
largely due to its performance. It is due largely to the recent world
crash and the consequent exposure of Fianna Fail, the Green Party, Fine
Gael and the Labour Party. Sinn Fein is inherently a bourgeois
opportunist party.

The party's denigration of Dolours Price, Brendan Hughes and others is
an indication as to the degree to which Sinn Fein has descended into the
mire. Incidentally it is an indication of the journalistic cowardice to
which Ed Moloney has descended as evidenced by his comments on the
recent arrest of Gerry Adams. In the interview on American radio he
effectively accepted that the interviews with Price and Hughes had a
dubious character.

Concerning the abduction, killing and disappearance of Jean McConville
by the IRA let me say this: If Gerry Adams was seriously suspected of
being directly involved in her killing then why did the British
government, the Irish government, Fianna Fail, the PDs, Fine Gael and
the Labour party negotiate with him or support such negotiations leading
to the GFA? The British and Irish governments were prepared to
negotiate an agreement with a political leader who was understood to be a
leading member of the IRA and thereby responsible for killings and
bombings including the McConville killing.

Given the establishment of the GFA it makes no sense to punish
individuals who were members of the IRA. It makes no sense to hound them
on the question as to whether they were IRA members. This problem
should have been sorted out during the GFA negotiations. I would have
thought that secret diplomacy by the involved parties would have covered
this. Again the opportunism of Sinn Fein/IRA is again exposed if there
was no settlement concerning this in this regard. It is now being
hoisted by its own petard.

Overall the McConville issue is being venally exploited by sections of
the bourgeois media and the political establishment to damage Sinn Fein.
The foregoing no more care about Mrs McConville than they do the
victims of HSE incompetence. To conclude: The Adams arrest may have been
carried out as part of a plan to get an agreement on past actions of
individuals from both the Republican and Loyalist camps. Such an
agreement might bring to an end the arrest, trial and imprisonment of
activists for their previous actions. This makes me wonder whether these
recent events were choreographed by Sinn Fein and the British
government. Gerry looked well for a guy kept in detention for four days
and subjected to continuous questioning especially as he had not eaten
for the first two days of his detention.